I have a NAS Buffalo Linkstation 300gb which is connected to my Surecom wireless access point running 108bps. The access point is then connected wirelessly to the Roku M5000. All my music files reside on the Linkstation, but I cannot access these unless the PC is on. Is there any way that I can listen to my music files without having to switch the PC on? I have spoken to Roku Support, and they have directed me to the forums. PLEASE HELP!

I have a NAS Buffalo Linkstation 300gb which is connected to my Surecom wireless access point running 108bps. The access point is then connected wirelessly to the Roku M5000. All my music files reside on the Linkstation, but I cannot access these unless the PC is on. Is there any way that I can listen to my music files without having to switch the PC on? I have spoken to Roku Support, and they have directed me to the forums. PLEASE HELP!

What’s the model of the linkstation?

If it’s a PPC one (HG, for example), and you can install freelink, there are ppc debian packages on the nightlies site that run on linkstation/freelink.

I don’t have packages available for openlink, but I’d be willing to work with someone to get some going. It might be possible to get optware running on it, in which case we could make an ipkg for it.

If all that’s greek, then my short answer is probably not.. Not until someone steps up with some unix know-how and is willing to help make a package for openlink.

It is all a bit greek, the model of the Linkstation is HS-D300GL from Buffalo, I cannot believe that no one has thought about how to use the server in this way!

Oh, they have, and people are doing it (myself included), but it’s not trivial or for the faint of heart. It’s possible to irretrievably break your device, for example.

The one you have seems to be a PPC model, similar to the HG series. It appears to be possible to run freelink on it, and there are packages for freeklink on the nightlies site (the powerpc.deb packages).

But that wipes out the web based administration pages, and forces you into configuring everything yourself — setting up the drive shares by editing config files, etc. It’s a fairly complex task. not impossible, but definitely has to be understood as a medium-to-long-term adventure, not an evening project, if you get me.

Instructions on replacing the firmware are on the freelink site I posted above. That will get you to the point of having a bare linux box. Then you’ll need to install support for file sharing, etc.

Freelink (which is debian) is pretty well documented — a manual is here.

The other option is to install OpenLink, which keeps the web based interface. But I don’t have easy-to-install packages for that. Your best bet there would be to ask on the forums on the linkstation wiki to see if anyone has files they are offering for download.